I wish you'd given a link to an example.I usually use Outer Glow and/or Inner Glow in Layer Styles and then tweak them with Style Settings by clicking the little "fx" on the right side of the layer.You can even get a glow effect. albeit one-sided, using Drop Shadow, changing the shadow color and then tweaking its opacity, size and distance.Try duplicating the text layer, maybe increasing its size a little and applying the blur to its layer and then applying some Noise/Grain to it - or apply the Noise first and then blur it a little.